And God said ... and it was so – Entrainment

I learned recently that  sound can produce order out of chaos. Ernst Chladni conducted experiments using a metal plate as a kind of sounding board (speaker). He sprinkled sand randomly over the surface and found intricate geometric patterns emerging as he played notes of various frequencies (search  Chladni plates on Youtube). In not so much an explanation as an imagination  of our text (Genesis 1:9ff) Dan McCollom imagines the scattered sand as the nuclear particles created in Genesis 1:1,  and the sound as Jesus' voice calling creation into order (God vibrations p 26), “and it was so.”  Einstein explained that everything in the universe is in a continuous state of vibratory motion, and every object has a frequency. The earth for example vibrates at 6 to 10 times a second. I want to briefly discuss the concepts of resonance and entrainment,  and use them as a parable of prayer.

Resonance is the increase in amplitude when two or more sources of the same frequency come together. A child pumping a swing in sync with it frequency produces  resonance (swinging it higher). Entrainment in physics, is the process whereby two interacting oscillating systems assume the same period. Resonance and entrainment are working together when an opera singer singings a note close to the natural frequency of a wine glass shattering it.  One explanation of the Tacoma suspension bridge  disaster (search  Youtube), is that a high sustained wind, “plucking” the suspension wires with a frequency that came into entrainment with the natural frequency of the bridge. And it produces unsustainable resonance (amplitude) of the vibrations. It is possible that God used resonance and entrainment in causing the walls of Jericho to come down as the Israeli army marched round it for seven days (Joshua 6). Of course God being God,  could also have suspended the natural laws of physics to do it!

We don't call it  resonance and entrainment, but analogous spiritual laws seem to be operational in prayer. In terms of resonance we read “if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). In terms of  entrainment we read that if we ask anything according to His will (entrainment with Him), He hears us. And ....  we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14, 15). Asking in agreement for things we know are in His will (unity is His will for example) is very powerful.  Unity is recovered in iron sharpening iron as we confess our sins one to another (Proverbs 27:17; James 5:16). The two things together bring us to the foot of cross. And there at the foot of the cross there is healing in the openness and the  transparency.  And there the last part of the James reference applies “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”


Father, surely true unity is entrainment of heart, mind and soul with You and each other. Its part of bringing the Kingdom back to earth. There are so many things we need to pray for Lord, and we don't have because we don't ask, of if we do it's with wrong motives (James 4:2,3). Forgive us Lord and bring us into entrainment with each other, so that in the power of agreement (resonance) our prayers will become increasingly powerful. Such power demolishes strongholds. Motivate and move us to do this Lord, do not  leave us as we are. We ask in Jesus Name Amen